Jackson Hole

Here is our favorite picture.

Joplin, MO Tornado Damages

We are finally on our trip to the Pacific Northwest. We left Thursday, June 16th, We spent the night at the KOA just north of Fort Smith at Alma, AR. Barb was following in the Honda CRV. She took this picture as I entered the Hopper Tunnel on I-540 south of Fayetteville, AR. She also took the picture below in the tunnel.

Even the pictures and video on TV didn’t prepare us for the damage in Joplin, MO. We briefly drove through town on our way to Kansas City.

This was once a McDonald’s restaurant.

This is what is left of Joplin High School!

Even the bark was stripped off the trees. It was eerie to see stumps of trees stacked in the streets awaiting removal.

Jellystone RV Park at Robert, LA

Since we will be gone the rest of the summer, we decided to bring our four youngest grandkids to Jellystone RV Park for five days. They have been looking forward to this for some time. We left June 6th and would return June 10th.

There is plenty here to keep them busy. They seem to want to do everything at the same time.

They took the hayride and enjoyed singing songs about Yogi Bear as went rode around the park.

Paddle boats

Kayaks

Canoes

They had a ball on the water slide but were interrupted by afternoon thunderstorms and got to go back the next two afternoons on rain checks.

After four fun filled days we headed home on Friday with stops at the state capital in Baton Rouge and a tour of the battleship USS Kidd.

On the steps of the Capital

The Louisiana State Senate Chambers

The view from the top of the Capital

Boarding the USS Kidd

Close quarters; what no AC!

 

Things to see and places to climb!

The Trip Home

We left Los Angeles at 3:00 PM on Monday with plans to make get as close to Arizona as possible with a planned stop at Banning, CA to have dinner with friends, We would not have intentionally chosen to leave LA during rush hour but had no choice. We wanted to make it down the road. With the fuel tanks (two 65 gallon tanks) at a little over a half full of diesel we hoped to make it to AZ where fuel was cheaper before refueling.

We made it to Banning, CA and went to eat with good friends Harold and Karen Gonser. We had a pleasant meal and visit before heading down the road towards the Arizona border.

We stopped for the night in Indio, CA at a very nice Best Western Motel, It was so nice there we wished we could have spent several days, but we needed to head home.

On our way down to breakfast on Tuesday morning we saw bees swarming around the flowers on the over ten foot tall cactus just outside the window by the stairs. With regret we left this oasis at Indio, CA and headed east. When we got to Quartzite, AZ we pulled off the Interstate and drove through the area to see what it looked like. We have always wanted to go there in January and February to experience the big RV gathering that attracts RVers from all over. Without the hundreds of RVs it didn’t look like much.

We stopped at Eloy, AZ northwest of Tucson to refuel and have dinner with our good friends and former pastor, John and Donna Guillott, They are currently working in the Tucson area as directors of the association of Baptist churches in that area. It was so good to see these friends and hear about the work that they are doing in that area. We spent the night in Tucson after another long day on the road.

On Wednesday morning we headed for New Mexico. We made it to Las Cruces, NM at lunch time and ate at La Posta de Mesilla Restaurant in historic Messilla.

After a hearty and filling Mexican meal it was back on the road again. We hit El Paso, TX at rush hour and spent over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Despite this slow down we made it to Fredricksburg, TX to spend the night.We will have to come back to this area and explore the Texas hill country.

Thursday morning we headed to the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch. It was easy to see why LBJ spent so much time on his ranch. Anyone would enjoy relaxing in this tranquil setting.

 

The family cemetery where LBJ was laid to rest is shaded by large oaks.

LBJ’s Air Force One is sheltered near his Texas White House where he carried out much of his Presidential duties and entertained world leaders.

The LBJ ranch house is large and inviting. We wished we had more time to explore the ranch but needed to head east and north if we were to get back to our daughter’s house in Corrigan, TX to pick up our car and head home on Friday.